US and Canadian Coastguards mounted a search of a 4,000 square mile area using two aircraft and three merchant ships but called it off in the early hours of Sunday morning.

On Saturday the crew of a cargo ship in the area reported see the hull of a capsized yacht and reported its position and the crew’s families believe they evacuated the sinking yacht in a liferaft.

Mr Warren’s sister Kay Coombes, 46, from Bridgwater, Somerset, said: “It’s an utter nightmare, we are grateful for the US and Canadian coast guards for what they have done so far but it’s stopped too soon after two days,

it’s not long enough, we believe they are still alive “We are running out of time, we need to find them.”

Mr Goslin’s student daughter Claire wrote on the petition website: “One of the sailors is my dad and we cannot give up! He is my world and we need to start this search again!!!”

Mr Male’s father, Graham Male, said earlier: “We just can’t believe the coastguard have called off the search so soon.

“We are trying to do things to plea to the Government to put pressure on the US Coastguard and the Canadians to reinstate the search particularly now we have much better weather than we had.”

Tony Bullimore, 75, yesterday backed their calls.

The veteran sailor, famously rescued after spending six days trapped inside his capsized yacht in the Southern Ocean in 1996, said he was ‘very concerned’ it had been called off.

He said: “If the location of the upturned yacht is known then I cannot understand why no effort is being made to find it and establish whether anyone is inside.

“It is quite possible to survive inside an upturned boat for a few days although hypothermia, frostbite and finding sustenance could be an issue.

“It would be a bit like being inside a washing machine and they would have to hang on to something to stop being thrown around but, saying that, it is survivable.

“Alternatively if they are in a modern, well-equipped liferaft they could survive for many days at sea.”

Hugo boss skipper Alex Thomson said: “ It’s absolutely disgusting that the search for these men was called off and I can only believe it was for financial reasons.